THE OUTSIDER IN GLOBAL ANGLO LITERATURE
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS COURSE
EXAM
- Essay questions
- Write something about the novels you have read during the module in full
- Allowed to bring copies of novels you have read in full (no notes on them)
- Fill out questions
Factual questions
Names of important people (not dates) Essay questions
One question from each book
Three novels – can be brought to the exam
No underlining, No post its, No pencil marks
You can write about other books, but you will not have the material with you – our
decision
- Comparative essay questions
Themes discussed across books
You can choose three essay questions
Or two and a comparative essay question
Extra material on BB
WHAT WE WILL BE STUDYING
WOMEN AS OUTSIDERS
- Scarlet letter
Single mother in puritan New England (17 th century)
Says “non of you business” when asked about the identity of the father
Woman vs. the town
- Mrs. Dalloway
Married to an English MP (1920s)
Inside her head while she is preparing for a party
“Did I make the right choses in my life”
Non of the obvious outsidership qualities – feels estranged from her own live
- Their eyes were watching God
Young black woman who is looking for the right man
Has to fight the stereotypes of her own culture – women have to get married
Suffers from the violence
- The God of all small things
About twins and their mother (Indian family)
Their ways of thinking is influenced by the colonial history
The idea of a boy studying and a girl having married = greatest achievement
The cast system is still used, but isn’t legally in act (you cannot exclude them)
SPLEEN – A REASON FOR OUTSIDERSHIP
Spleen = something between nostalgia, melancholy and uneasiness – you suffer from the world
- The great Gatsby
1
, Ultimate American novel
The meaning of “great” in the title in relation to the word “great” in “make American
great again”
Maybe about white supremacists
Rich white man
- The catcher in the Rye
In terms of adolescents
The writing and the humour in this book
Protagonist has hatred for the world of adult people (all phony (=fake))
- On the road
People in the early 20s
Kerouac was an outsider himself
Self declared outsiders (just like the Beat generation)
A new generation that takes to the road to “travel” (not knowing where they’re going) –
don’t want to settle down
A life of non interference
- The bell jar
Girl teenager that gets a internship in a fashion magazine
Feels disconnected from all the other people at the internship
Self inflicted outsidership
(a very dark book)
RACE – A REASON FOR OUTSIDERSHIP
- Native son
he interiorises the stereotypes that white people entertain about him
(hard to find in a book store)
Idea of the vail is what haunts protagonist – “this is what white people will always think
when he walks into the room
They will always see a black person enter the room
- Beloved
Ravages about slavery
The damage slavery has done to people
What does it mean to be enslaved?
(Has been band by Trump)
- On earth we’re briefly gorgeous
Coming of age
A lot of information about people dying because of drugs
What it was like to grow up as an outsider and a homosexual boy in America
- Assembly
Story of a young black woman working in a store
Answer to Mrs. Dalloway
2
,INTRODUCTION
Going for a particular approach of literature
Outsidership portraits with the author to begin with
POWER STRUCTURES
- Power: mostly negative connotation
Abusive power is the first thing that comes to mind but it isn’t necessarily the case
Power can be used for good and bad ends. You can suffer from it and benefit from it
IMPORTANT CLAIM
- Every culture creates insiders and outsiders – and angle of this course
They value some people because of the way they look – means that people are also
excluded (= outsider)
You can understand power relations in a society by looking at the way they outsider
people
Looking at outsiders in a society helps us understand how the power works in the
society
WHAT IS AN OUTSIDER? AND WHY ARE THEY OUTSIDERS?
They don’t act or look the same as other people in a society
They don’t enjoy the privileges that the dominant group enjoy
Language, gender, religious… differences
Different intensities and different grades
You cannot live here
You are not allowed to go to school
LECTURE 1 – BARTLEBY
BARTLEBY
HERMAN MELVILLE
- From New York
- Also wrote Moby Dick – nobody liked it he got depressed
- Bartleby was kind off a reaction to his own life
Someone who was misplaced and outsidered by the society
Feeling of autobiographical aspect in Bartleby (stop writing)
THE CHARACTER BARTLEBY
- Very radical outsider – but not someone we would expect to be an outsider
He doesn’t conform to the standers way of living
Wants to contradict the idea of people complying
- Every effort to accommodate him fails
- Nuance of the subtitle: A story of Wallstreet
The heart of American capitalism
Shows the life in Wallstreet and not necessarily of Bartleby
3
, THE STORY
- Nobody knows how to interpret this story – it resists interpretation
- We only know Bartleby through the lawyer – we have to trust him in the way he portrays
Bartleby
- The lawyer fictionalizes himself
He thinks we have to know more about him to understand Bartleby
Represents himself as a man in control
Says he doesn’t loose his temper
- If you are like the lawyer you are unable to understand someone like Bartleby
He defies all the characteristics of Bartleby by which the lawyer lives
- The narrator changes in regards to the way he thinks about Bartleby
First the lawyer thinks Bartleby is lonely
He has a kind of fascination for a man who does his work well but doesn’t fit in
Then the lawyer is shocked
“I would prefer not to”
The lawyer develops a kind of sympathy for Bartleby – desperation and frustration
- Obsession with the number 3 – maybe a hidden meaning behind it
- Ironic revise of the power
The lawyer is the boss – but he gets haunted by this character who is not readable and
understandable
Leads to him saying: “I will have to fire you” – even willing to pay someone who is not
doing the work to just get out
- One way of looking at it: Bartleby is a story about crating a position outside the linguistic and
social convention of society. He is neither inside nor the outside, but inexplicable in the
society he lives in
- The faith in American of any act of rebellion – this is what happens when you disagree with
the power of society
You may disagree with society without having fully fledged alternative
May be an act of (quiet) rebellion against America in that period – cannot explain why
you feel an outsider
- For more information – look at the text
4
INFORMATION ABOUT THIS COURSE
EXAM
- Essay questions
- Write something about the novels you have read during the module in full
- Allowed to bring copies of novels you have read in full (no notes on them)
- Fill out questions
Factual questions
Names of important people (not dates) Essay questions
One question from each book
Three novels – can be brought to the exam
No underlining, No post its, No pencil marks
You can write about other books, but you will not have the material with you – our
decision
- Comparative essay questions
Themes discussed across books
You can choose three essay questions
Or two and a comparative essay question
Extra material on BB
WHAT WE WILL BE STUDYING
WOMEN AS OUTSIDERS
- Scarlet letter
Single mother in puritan New England (17 th century)
Says “non of you business” when asked about the identity of the father
Woman vs. the town
- Mrs. Dalloway
Married to an English MP (1920s)
Inside her head while she is preparing for a party
“Did I make the right choses in my life”
Non of the obvious outsidership qualities – feels estranged from her own live
- Their eyes were watching God
Young black woman who is looking for the right man
Has to fight the stereotypes of her own culture – women have to get married
Suffers from the violence
- The God of all small things
About twins and their mother (Indian family)
Their ways of thinking is influenced by the colonial history
The idea of a boy studying and a girl having married = greatest achievement
The cast system is still used, but isn’t legally in act (you cannot exclude them)
SPLEEN – A REASON FOR OUTSIDERSHIP
Spleen = something between nostalgia, melancholy and uneasiness – you suffer from the world
- The great Gatsby
1
, Ultimate American novel
The meaning of “great” in the title in relation to the word “great” in “make American
great again”
Maybe about white supremacists
Rich white man
- The catcher in the Rye
In terms of adolescents
The writing and the humour in this book
Protagonist has hatred for the world of adult people (all phony (=fake))
- On the road
People in the early 20s
Kerouac was an outsider himself
Self declared outsiders (just like the Beat generation)
A new generation that takes to the road to “travel” (not knowing where they’re going) –
don’t want to settle down
A life of non interference
- The bell jar
Girl teenager that gets a internship in a fashion magazine
Feels disconnected from all the other people at the internship
Self inflicted outsidership
(a very dark book)
RACE – A REASON FOR OUTSIDERSHIP
- Native son
he interiorises the stereotypes that white people entertain about him
(hard to find in a book store)
Idea of the vail is what haunts protagonist – “this is what white people will always think
when he walks into the room
They will always see a black person enter the room
- Beloved
Ravages about slavery
The damage slavery has done to people
What does it mean to be enslaved?
(Has been band by Trump)
- On earth we’re briefly gorgeous
Coming of age
A lot of information about people dying because of drugs
What it was like to grow up as an outsider and a homosexual boy in America
- Assembly
Story of a young black woman working in a store
Answer to Mrs. Dalloway
2
,INTRODUCTION
Going for a particular approach of literature
Outsidership portraits with the author to begin with
POWER STRUCTURES
- Power: mostly negative connotation
Abusive power is the first thing that comes to mind but it isn’t necessarily the case
Power can be used for good and bad ends. You can suffer from it and benefit from it
IMPORTANT CLAIM
- Every culture creates insiders and outsiders – and angle of this course
They value some people because of the way they look – means that people are also
excluded (= outsider)
You can understand power relations in a society by looking at the way they outsider
people
Looking at outsiders in a society helps us understand how the power works in the
society
WHAT IS AN OUTSIDER? AND WHY ARE THEY OUTSIDERS?
They don’t act or look the same as other people in a society
They don’t enjoy the privileges that the dominant group enjoy
Language, gender, religious… differences
Different intensities and different grades
You cannot live here
You are not allowed to go to school
LECTURE 1 – BARTLEBY
BARTLEBY
HERMAN MELVILLE
- From New York
- Also wrote Moby Dick – nobody liked it he got depressed
- Bartleby was kind off a reaction to his own life
Someone who was misplaced and outsidered by the society
Feeling of autobiographical aspect in Bartleby (stop writing)
THE CHARACTER BARTLEBY
- Very radical outsider – but not someone we would expect to be an outsider
He doesn’t conform to the standers way of living
Wants to contradict the idea of people complying
- Every effort to accommodate him fails
- Nuance of the subtitle: A story of Wallstreet
The heart of American capitalism
Shows the life in Wallstreet and not necessarily of Bartleby
3
, THE STORY
- Nobody knows how to interpret this story – it resists interpretation
- We only know Bartleby through the lawyer – we have to trust him in the way he portrays
Bartleby
- The lawyer fictionalizes himself
He thinks we have to know more about him to understand Bartleby
Represents himself as a man in control
Says he doesn’t loose his temper
- If you are like the lawyer you are unable to understand someone like Bartleby
He defies all the characteristics of Bartleby by which the lawyer lives
- The narrator changes in regards to the way he thinks about Bartleby
First the lawyer thinks Bartleby is lonely
He has a kind of fascination for a man who does his work well but doesn’t fit in
Then the lawyer is shocked
“I would prefer not to”
The lawyer develops a kind of sympathy for Bartleby – desperation and frustration
- Obsession with the number 3 – maybe a hidden meaning behind it
- Ironic revise of the power
The lawyer is the boss – but he gets haunted by this character who is not readable and
understandable
Leads to him saying: “I will have to fire you” – even willing to pay someone who is not
doing the work to just get out
- One way of looking at it: Bartleby is a story about crating a position outside the linguistic and
social convention of society. He is neither inside nor the outside, but inexplicable in the
society he lives in
- The faith in American of any act of rebellion – this is what happens when you disagree with
the power of society
You may disagree with society without having fully fledged alternative
May be an act of (quiet) rebellion against America in that period – cannot explain why
you feel an outsider
- For more information – look at the text
4
